sentry

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][3][4] Most dictionaries take it as perhaps a shortening of centrinel (1598) or centronel (1594), variants of sentinel, or a back-formation from them, as if the word ended in the suffix -ry.^{[2][5][6][7][8][9][10]} The base word came from French sentinelle, from Italian sentinella;^[2][10] the OED knows no convincing etymology of the Italian word, and Ayto suggests sentire (“to perceive, watch”), from Latin sentiō (“to feel”).^[2][10]

Weekley, Klein and Merriam-Webster derive it instead from an obsolete contracted form of sanctuary, from seintuarie or sentuarie,^{[11][12][13][2]} so that it first meant a place of safety, then a shelter for a watchman, and then the watchman himself.^[11][14][3] Weekley denies any connection with sentinel and compares French guérite (“sentry box”), which in Old French meant a refuge.^[11] Skeat cites Minsheu (1627), who has “centrie” as a short form of sanctuary, and Cotgrave, who explains French “garite” as a place of refuge and “a sentrie, or little lodge for a sentinell”.^[14][11] Johnson thought it was "corrupted" from sentinel.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A watchtower: 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary, a sense that was obsolete by 1653.^[2][5][3] Merriam-Webster dates the guard sense to 1608.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The sense of an armed soldier posted to keep guard and stop unauthorized people from passing is recorded from 1632,^[2][5][3] and the duty or watch of a sentry, as in keep sentry, from 1639.^[2] From 1650, in Vaughan, the word was used of anyone or anything that keeps guard.^[2] Milton wrote of "the thick senteries and stations thick / Of angels watching round" in Paradise Lost.^[11][14] The sentry box, a shelter for a sentry in bad weather, is recorded from 1728,^[3] and sentry-go was originally an order to a soldier to relieve the sentry on duty, later the duty itself (19th century).^[7][11] The verb, to guard as a sentry, followed in 1820, and Joyce used it in Ulysses (1922) for posting as a sentry.^[2][6] In navigation a sentry was also a device towed behind a ship to warn of shallow water (1894).^[2]

Timeline

• 1611 – a watchtower (obsolete by 1653).^[2][5][3]
• 1632 – a soldier posted to keep guard.^[2][5][3] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1608.^[13]
• 1639 – the duty or watch of a sentry.^[2]
• 1650 – figurative, anyone or anything that keeps guard.^[2]
• 1728 – sentry box.^[3]
• 1820 – verb, to guard as a sentry.^[2]
• 1873 – verb, to act as a sentry.^[2]
• 1894 – a device towed to warn of shallow water.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soldier posted to guard a place, stop unauthorized people from entering and watch for danger: The sentry at the gate checked our passes.^[16][13][2]
2. The watch kept by a sentry, as in stand sentry or keep sentry.^[16][2][6]
3. A person or animal that keeps guard like a sentry.^[13][2]
4. (obsolete, 1611–1653) A watchtower.^[2][6][13]

Verb

1. To guard a place as a sentry.^[13][2][6]
2. To stand guard; to act as a sentry.^[13][2]

Related words

• sentinel
• sanctuary
• sentry box

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster and the OED also record an obsolete sentry meaning sanctuary, from 1590;^[13][2] the Shorter Oxford calls it obsolete except in compounds,^[6] and Weekley notes dialect sentry-fields for church fields.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d e f g Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins